Good to hear Twiz. I have been on the self massage lately... Hard massage of the lower calf to ease a sore heel ... Also massaging my boy in exactly the same place as he has been limping a bit with a sore heel and is really tender in the calf. I can still ride with mine, problem is he ignores the pain and carries on hobbling around... Doc tonight. So I may be racing tomorrow .

Actually did an FTP test this afternoon. It's the first time I've done anything like that and to be honest, I probably didn't push hard enough through the middle of it. It was a bit like a time trial, which I've not really done before.

You did it on a stationary bike though didn't you?... personally i couldn't!. Or I should say I could but I would have a stationary bike ftp and an on road ftp and they would probably be fairly different.Anyway spill the beans on what you did .

Hmm... pain came back on the ride home tonight. It's only 9.5km, so I don't get much of a warm up. There's a kick up on the long hill home, and suddenly the left knee started hurting again. But if I sit up, the pain stops instantly, go back down onto the aero bars, it's immediately back. Changing foot angle and knee lateral position makes no difference. I can't pick what's changing, although the obvious change is that the effective saddle-to-pedal distance changes when you tilt the pelvis up. Or could it be another sign of the tight hamstrings which are probably the cause of the lower back pain. Very depressing...

Been knocking of 4 sessions of 2 x 20min (AT) sweet spot between Mon-Fri and then backing up with a long ride and crit race on Saturday.

I've been trying to target >700TSS weeks (HR based on Training Peaks) and have settle in to around 16-18hr PW on the bike.

Did a recent 20min bike test and knocked off another PB even though I haven't spent much time in and around that level of effort (apart from the crit)

Keep it rolling and thanks Kevin for the tips!

Paul

that's sounds like a serious amount of riding!... What level are you racing at?.

Going to sit out training today... Lower back and hips are really feeling yesterday... Should have done more climbing on the Mtb in the build up to cyclocross season!. Just going to do some stretching today and do some hard days hopefully during the week, weather is going bad though ... Need to find those cold weather racing gloves for next weekend!.Might have to go to NZ for a quick unplanned trip at Christmas and probably won't take bike... Bye bye fitness!.

Edit... over 24 hours later and I am still suffering, pushed it a bit too hard me thinks .

And my knee problems haven't quite gone away. I bought Steve Hoggs recommended stretching book & strap, and have been using that and the cricket ball, the glutius minimus is the pain point for the cricket ball. But I walked out of the gym after the stretch & ball this morning and felt pretty good. Except for the vastus lateralis (outer quad) - they have been a bit sore for days now, ever since I did 80km on the TT bike on Sat. Next step will be to start doing lunges/single leg squats etc. to try and build up the other muscles around the knees. I've also been reading every article under the sun on TT position and saddle height, Steve Hogg (as always) has some good stuff, seems that saddle height shouldn't change much from the road bike if you have the road bike set up for riding in the drops.

And I was given an Adamo Road saddle, now fitted to the TCR, hopefully this will stop the nads from going to sleep if I do a big stint in TT position on the road bike. I'll be trying this out tonight.

twizzle wrote:I had viral gastro about a month back, killed my training for three days!

..........

Except for the vastus lateralis (outer quad)

3 days without any riding is pretty standard for me. I admire you guys who can consistently train.

As for your outer quad pain. Could it be sciatic pain brought about by an unknown back injury made worse by your TT position? Only thinking out load. I'm definitely no expert. It's just something I suffer as a result of a back injury I gained at work last year.

I had an extended break over the weekend (Friday through Monday), intentional as I was feeling a little worse for wear last week. Knees were aching pretty bad. Probably rode 40km at a lazy pace over the four days.

Got back into it today, hit my mate the 20% 500m climb, and covered 1000m elevation over 50km this morning. Good time on the 20% climb, and did it on 24 not 28 at the rear... thought I was in the bottom cog! Kinda stoked as beforehand I thought I wasn't capable of doing that.

During lunch did 30km and hit up the 4km sprint climb and blew up 3.5km in. Didn't actually blow up, but I had the worst stitch of my life. Couldn't breath without immense pain through my right side, so backed off for the last 500m and took a minute when I got to the top.

And just rode the 7km home, at the start I was holding a good pace, 40+kmph for 4km but felt myself fading so just relaxed for the last bit of the ride.

Yeah feel a bit better today, really took me out yesterday though, walking from one end of the house to the other was pretty hard, will have a quiet week this week!.Hate being sick but I have to put it into perspective, my 7 year old niece has just been diagnosed with a pretty nasty form of cancer... every thing sort of pales into insignificance with news like that .

twizzle wrote:I had viral gastro about a month back, killed my training for three days!

..........

Except for the vastus lateralis (outer quad)

3 days without any riding is pretty standard for me. I admire you guys who can consistently train.

As for your outer quad pain. Could it be sciatic pain brought about by an unknown back injury made worse by your TT position? Only thinking out load. I'm definitely no expert. It's just something I suffer as a result of a back injury I gained at work last year.

Three days without training?! What a horrible thought, the fitness I would lose!! (And I only missed two days of riding, I just didn't ride hard for one day).

Actually, I had three days off after the AG Gran Fondo, but that was an "extreme" weekend for me. Yes, some of the symptoms I get could be related to nerve compression, but in this this specific case 'no' - the legs are actually sore to the touch. And I can pass the 'straight leg lift' test for sciatica as well, so it's not likely to be a bulged disc.

My daily schedule has now completely changed. Ride -> collect stretch crap from my locker (wow, a pair of shoes I had forgotten I owned and two business shirts in there as well!) -> gym for full stretching plus attacking the cricket ball with my arse.

Speaking of shoes... function the other week, "smart casual", the better half outright refused to go if I was wearing the five-fingers (all I wear these days), so I pulled my good shoes out of the wardrobe that have been ignored for about the last five years. I couldn't tighten them up enough, my feet are too skinny and they don't fit any more!

Motivation has left the room . Funny how that happens!.No more racing this year as I haven't recovered 100% yet from the weekends gastro and the thought of killing myself this Saturday in miserable cold wet weather isn't really filling me with joy ( normally it would! )... then it is off to NZ on the 12th till the 1st of Jan. No bike coming with me this time .Really need to do as much as I can before the 12th so that it "hangs" around a bit for January ... but it is snowing outside and inside riding really does SUCK!.

40km this morning, second best time (20 sec off) on a 8km climb. Then 25km at lunchtime, 10 seconds off on a 4km climb sprint. On the way home (only 7km) did a few sprinting segs and jagged a KOM on a suburban short sprint segment and 10th overall on a fairly popular 3km flat sprint.

toolonglegs wrote:Motivation has left the room . Funny how that happens!.No more racing this year as I haven't recovered 100% yet from the weekends gastro and the thought of killing myself this Saturday in miserable cold wet weather isn't really filling me with joy ( normally it would! )... then it is off to NZ on the 12th till the 1st of Jan. No bike coming with me this time .Really need to do as much as I can before the 12th so that it "hangs" around a bit for January ... but it is snowing outside and inside riding really does SUCK!.

Surely, you must be able to pick up something second-hand in NZ to keep there as a training bike? Probably cheaper than the cost of taking a bike with you as well!

toolonglegs wrote:Motivation has left the room . Funny how that happens!.No more racing this year as I haven't recovered 100% yet from the weekends gastro and the thought of killing myself this Saturday in miserable cold wet weather isn't really filling me with joy ( normally it would! )... then it is off to NZ on the 12th till the 1st of Jan. No bike coming with me this time .Really need to do as much as I can before the 12th so that it "hangs" around a bit for January ... but it is snowing outside and inside riding really does SUCK!.

Surely, you must be able to pick up something second-hand in NZ to keep there as a training bike? Probably cheaper than the cost of taking a bike with you as well!

Doesn't cost me anything to take a bike to NZ, was actually think of taking my Ribble there and leaving it there minus wheels. But I will probably take a break for two weeks, although there is a very small mtb there, maybe I need to take a long post with me .

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